Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement
The Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement is the Academy’s premier recognition of excellence in scholarship. This prestigious annual prize, open to scholars across diverse fields and disciplines, honors those whose work has made outstanding contributions to humanity’s knowledge, appreciation, and cultivation of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Recipients are nominated by the members of the Academy and appointed by the board of directors. Winners of the Barry Prize receive a cash award and also become members of the Academy.
The 2024 Barry Prizes were awarded to:
Akhil Reed Amar, Yale University Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
Gary A. Anderson, University of Notre Dame Jeannie Suk Gersen, Harvard University
Marianne Bertrand, University of Chicago William Chester Jordan, Princeton University
Nicholas A. Christakis, Yale University Karin Öberg, Harvard University
Brian Conrad, Stanford University Megan Sykes, Columbia University
The 2023 Barry Prizes were awarded to:
Robert P. George, Princeton University Jon D. Levenson, Harvard University
Jonathan D. Haidt, New York University Josiah Ober, Stanford University
Svetlana Y. Jitomirskaya, University of California-Berkeley Ruth L. Okediji, Harvard University
Steven E. Koonin, New York University Orlando Patterson, Harvard University
Anna I. Krylov, University of Southern California Candace A. Vogler, University of Chicago
Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom
The Academy’s Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom, named for the late President of the University of Chicago and a stalwart defender of academic freedom, is presented annually to a public thinker who displays extraordinary courage in the exercise of intellectual freedom.
JAY BHATTACHARYA
2024 Recipient of the Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom
For over twenty years, Dr. Bhattacharya has been a leading authority on biomedical innovation, the economics of health care, and public policy affecting the health of vulnerable populations. He has produced over 200 scholarly publications, directs Stanford University’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, and is affiliated with prominent national institutions such as the National Bureau of Economics Research.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Bhattacharya, like so many others, pivoted his work to make his formidable expertise available to the public in its time of dire need. And, as happens so often in the practice of science, his findings did not immediately and completely confirm what many people were expecting him to find. In the fear and uncertainty of that undeniably challenging global emergency, some public officials found themselves asking: Can we afford to permit scientists to publicize unexpected findings and express ideas and opinions that deviate from those policies initially advocated and widely instituted? Or does our responsibility to public safety somehow require us to use administrative power to project and enforce the appearance of consensus in the findings of science, and the opinions of scientists?
Dr. Bhattacharya’s response demonstrated the courage and firm commitment to intellectual freedom that the Zimmer Medal exists to honor. He not only resolutely refused despite enormous pressure to compromise his scientific findings, but placed at risk his own personal and professional self-interest, repeatedly, without hesitation, to take a stand for the public’s right to unrestricted scientific discussion and debate.
The Academy was honored to present the 2024 Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
View our onstage conversation with Dr. Bhattacharya after the awarding of the medal here.
SIR SALMAN RUSHDIE
2023 Recipient of the Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom
The novels of Sir Salman Rushdie have transformed culture around the globe and are recognized by his peers as among the greatest literature of our era. Midnight’s Children, a complexly layered examination of the identities, powers, worldviews, aspirations and conflicts shaping the people of India in the 20th century – as well as a reflection on religion, politics, sex, literature and modernity – won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was twice selected as the best novel ever to win the Booker. Sir Salman was knighted for his services to literature in 2007. His prizes and awards are plentiful, and (an honor dear to all novelists) so are his sales figures.
For thirty-five years, Sir Salman has also served as a global beacon light for intellectual freedom. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini demanded that Sir Salman be murdered for writing his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, a death mark subsequently confirmed by other terrorist leaders. Sir Salman’s resolute courage in the face of these threats – and of actual attempts on his life, one of which gravely wounded him in 2022 – has inspired millions around the world. His refusal to be silenced is a model for all those who would not allow any form of tyranny to control the human mind, and a reminder that the only thing more costly than standing up for intellectual freedom would be failing to stand up for it.
The Academy was honored to present the 2023 Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom to Sir Salman Rushdie.
View our onstage conversation with Sir Salman after the awarding of the medal here.
ABOUT ROBERT ZIMMER
From 2006 to 2021, Robert J. Zimmer served as president of the University of Chicago. He had taught mathematics at Chicago and other institutions starting in 1975, lending his name to the field of geometry through such contributions as “Zimmer’s cocycle superrigidity theorem.” As president, Zimmer led the University of Chicago through important reforms and initiatives, such as replacing all loans with grants and scholarships in student aid packages, and the creation of the university’s first engineering program. Applications to Chicago tripled during his presidency.
Zimmer’s greatest legacy is his leadership in the restoration and defense of intellectual freedom in the American university. At a time when many schools were compromising the rights to freedom of thought that are at the core of the university’s educational mission, Zimmer emerged as a key champion of open inquiry. He led the creation of the Chicago Statement, affirming as foundational to the university the right of students and faculty to say what they think.
The Statement – adopted by schools across the country – quotes Robert M. Hutchins (Chicago president, 1929-45):
Free inquiry is indispensable to the good life.
Universities exist for the sake of such inquiry.
Without it, they cease to be universities.
The Academy is proud to honor Zimmer by awarding the Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom in his name.
